Moving but flawed
“Spaceman” marks Adam Sandler’s first foray into sci-fi, and he picked an odd one to be sure. This won’t please fans looking for goofiness or sci-fi fans looking for big thrills in space, but if you’re curious about the Sandman’s range, he’s quite good here.
He’s picked a somber, meditative, almost Terrance Mallick-like film about a Czech astronaut named Jakub, dubbed the loneliest man in the world because he’s spent the last 189 days in space doing cloud research, where a strange light field has developed around him.
Jakub is less than enthused. He’s more concerned with the fact he isn’t sleeping and that he has not heard from his pregnant wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan) in weeks. The reality is worse for him as we learn that Lenka is actually thinking of leaving him, though the Czech government is hesitant to relay that message for obvious reasons.
On the edge of collapse from exhaustion, things then get much weirder. The astronaut soon finds himself confronted by a giant talking spider (Paul Dano), who knows a thing or two about the cloud Jakub is researching, but not nearly as much as he does about helping the Czech process his thoughts and feelings about Lenka. The spider is eventually dubbed with the name Hanus.
Is Hanus real? We’re never told for sure. The smart money is on Jakub’s mind playing tricks on him. Hanus speaks in a dulcet, “i’m here to help” manner which doesn’t automatically dissuade us from thinking he’s a sinister Hal 9000 type character at first. As this progresses, it starts to seem more like a Tom Hanks and Wilson type deal.
Which the struggling Jakub definitely needs. Here’s a man who has become so emotionally closed off that even the mere presence of Hanus elicits no reaction. Informed by hallucinogenic and quietly haunting flashbacks- Jakub’s life of being a child under a communist republic, of being a son of a father who met a tragic end to that republic, and of an astronaut who has lost all sense of self in doing what he’s told begins to take shape.
Sandler finds the tragic sadness inside all the emotional numbness. His repression becomes as heartbreaking as his eventual reaching out to Hanus becomes touching. “Spaceman” will undoubtedly split people- the concept is somewhat silly and the conversations of trauma repetitive, but it’s written and performed with love.
It’s also hard to deny the visual splendor with which director Johan Renck has created his outer space shots. This is a film rich in dreamy color, the cloud and its particles becomes a sight of incredible, ever changing beauty as the film rolls along.
As I said the film is not for everyone and what hurts it even more is that the Jakub-Lenka relationship does feel so slight. Jakub seems to always have been an emotionally stunted man so why does Lenka want to divorce him now? What did she see in him in the first place? Also pulling away from Jakub and Hanus for more earth-bound scenes to see what she’s doing kinda kills the film’s claustrophobic, reflective tone.
It can be slow, and if contemplation and introspection are not your cup of tea, stay away, but there are wonderful character driven moments here as well regarding pulling away from people and self-imposed loneliness. “Spaceman” is not as controlled and you might like it to be, but you see the remnants of the film it wants to be, and ultimately, respect it.
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